We are not against the odd human interest story (some would argue correctly that all of our stories are human interest), so this is right up our alley either way. Women. We’re huge fans. So when I tripped over this story on the internet (someone sent it to me, shhh), I was very excited. My dentist is a woman. My gastro PA is a woman. My Primary care is for women. And if my mechanic, plumber, or electrician were a woman, that’d be fine with me, too.
Vocational school enrollment shot up by 16% last year, reaching a record level since the National Student Clearing House began recording such data. Gen Z has even been dubbed “the tool belt generation.”
While the majority of workers in trades are men, a growing number of young women are opting to work with their hands. In 2020, 11.6% of those who completed an apprenticeship program in the US were female, according to the Department of Labor.
“It’s about time for people to start realizing that you can make more money, have a better career path, have a happier life, have a better family in the long term, by doing stuff with your hands,” said Victoria Carl, a 25-year-old Albany woman who owns her own car repair show.
I’m excited to see anyone interested in the trades, and anyone who can do the job is fine. Are women going to pick up underwater industrial welding? Probably not. But there are a vast number of skilled positions in need of new blood, without which modern Western life would cease to exist. So this is great news. And we need auto mechanics and they need businesses to work at.
“They told me I couldn’t do it, so that’s why I did it,” Carl told The Post of going into automotive repair.
At 21, with a 50% investment from her parents, she took over a shop and named it Carl’s Advanced Automotive and Truck Repair Center in Albany.
Now, at age 25, she has four full-time technicians, as well as rolling up her sleeves herself, and is expecting net sales to be over $1 million this year.
I think this is great. I’d like to see more of it.
